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Friday, July 21

U.S. to ban American citizens from visiting North Korea, report says

The U.S. government is set to ban American citizens from traveling to North Korea, following the detention and tragic death college student Otto Warmbier and Kim Jong Un’s persistent nuclear tests.

According to Fox, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had determined to implement a “geographical travel restriction” for North Korea, which would make the use of a U.S. passport to enter the regime illegal. The restriction would go into effect 30 days after it is published in the Federal Register. It is not immediately clear when the notice would be published

The secretary of state has the legal authority to restrict passports for travel to countries with which the U.S is at war, when armed hostilities are in progress or when there is imminent danger to the public health or physical security of U.S. travelers. Bans have been implemented in Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Sudan, Cuba and North Vietnam, since 1967.

Otto Warmbier was sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor for allegedly attempting to steal a North Korean political banner from a hotel. After 17 months in detention, North Korea released Warmbier in a coma and he was taken home to the U.S, he died a week later.